The Reaper and the Angel
by apriiil
Summary: Lucy wonders just what it was she'd done in her past life that was horrible enough for her to get paired with a reaper like Bickslow.
1. The Reaper and the Angel

**The Reaper and the Angel**

* * *

Reapers were annoying. Or at least, that was what Lucy thought, anyway, but she was probably a little biased since she was supposed to detest them, being that she was a guardian angel and all.

But in all the years – centuries, really, although she wasn't sure because she'd stopped counting at some point after two-hundred – she'd been a guardian angel, watching over her humans and letting them live another day, she had never once met a reaper as annoying as _Bickslow_. He was quite literally the worst one she had ever had the misfortune of being assigned to the same human with.

He was rude, obnoxious, arrogant, almost cruel with how he treated his human, had the most annoying laugh in the entire goddamn universe, and he was, of course, a reaper. That alone was grounds for Lucy to want to strangle him every single time she saw him – which as it turns out, was _every single day._

But she couldn't. Unfortunately.

At that point, Lucy had been stuck putting up with Bickslow for ten years. She had been counting _those_ years, just because she wanted to be able to go back to the Grand Guardian and make him give her some kind of award for putting up with him for more than ten _minutes_. Because really, what had she done in her past life as a human herself that was so terrible to deserve her getting paired with _him_?

She was good at her job, too. She never gave up or let a reaper take a soul early when she got sick of them. She always watched over her human until there was nothing she could possibly do to let them live another day.

But Bickslow…

Bickslow was, compared to her, a baby. He was so young, he still remembered how he died in the first place – a plane crash, as it turns out – and the human they were assigned to, was just his first human! He was just a lil' baby reaper, as Lucy liked to call him, ten years down the track. Lucy still remembered when she'd first had the _pleasure_ of meeting Bickslow. He'd quite literally fallen through the ceiling onto the floor of the delivery room, right as their human had been born. Lucy honestly hadn't been able to tell who had been the cutest that day – their human, just born, or Bickslow, all confused and wondering just how the hell he'd gotten there, because he hadn't exactly been given the reaper introduction he should've received.

But ten years, _too many_ thoughts about wanting to strangle him, and twelve almost deaths later, Lucy was most definitely not thinking Bickslow was cute.

He was a nightmare. And she wanted to strangle him. Constantly.

"You know, I think it's going to be today."

 _Especially_ when he said that.

Lucy only rolled her eyes and turned to the reaper sitting beside her on the edge of the bridge, swinging his legs out and leaning back on his hands as he watched their human at the park below them. "No, it isn't," she insisted.

"You sure? I mean, the kid does have some pretty horrid luck…" Bickslow pointed out. Sure, that horrid luck was his doing, because as a first-time reaper, he had most definitely spent far too much time seeing if he could actually bring his human's soul just a little closer to being collected – abused his apparent powers and all – when his human had been younger.

That was only until Bickslow realised how annoying his guardian angel partner could be, though, so he'd decided to lay off on the terrorising front and just let nature run its course, because even without him interfering, he had next to zero luck. Though Bickslow didn't stop himself from making his human believe he really did have _less_ than zero luck from time to time, mostly by doing things like making his power go out as soon as he was about to watch something, or make his hot water suddenly stop working when he was in the shower and getting ready for school. Harmless fun, really.

Lucy always thought otherwise, but whatever.

"Bickslow, he's nearly eleven. He's not that much of a child anymore. You, on the other hand…"

He rolled his eyes that time, and leaned away so the stupid guardian angel couldn't squeeze his cheek. Honestly, it hurt when she did that. "Yeah, yeah. I'm your lil' baby reaper. I got it the first four-thousand times," Bickslow muttered. "But he's still a kid. Everyone is a kid to me, considering I'm immortal and all now."

"You've been saying that for ten years."

"Yeah, well, sorry we're all not a million fuckin' years old."

Lucy couldn't help but shove him slightly as he sat up, just so he was suddenly letting out an always undignified squawk and falling towards the park beneath them. Of course, he never actually made it to the ground – he just _poofed_ himself right back up to the bridge beside her. "I'm not a million years old, thank you very much," Lucy replied bitterly, still mostly watching her human in the park beneath them – he was on a sort of date, apparently. Lucy thought it was cute.

"Next time I'm bringing you down with me," the reaper muttered as he dusted off his sleeve. Then added, "And no? I could've sworn you were."

"No. Just… a few centuries. I think."

"I can't believe you stopped counting."

"You will once you've been doing it long enough."

He waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever," Bickslow sighed. "But seriously, it's gonna be today. I can feel it in my soul."

"Reapers don't have souls," Lucy mumbled.

"Oh yeah. Just here to collect them. Right." He still forgot sometimes. Whoops. "I can feel it where my soul _would_ be. Kid's gonna die today."

* * *

"…Okay so maybe he isn't going to die _today_ , but I'm pretty sure _she_ is," the reaper mumbled as he grimaced at the scene before him: his first human enjoying _his_ first time with the girlfriend of six-something months. Maybe the worst part was that Bickslow couldn't look away (though really, it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before… He'd quite literally watched the damn kid grow up).

But that was what Lucy was for, apparently, since she decided to appear next to him from wherever she'd been hiding, and then they were both in the kid's living room and Lucy was sort of sprawled over him on one lounge, because if it was one thing the guardian angel was not good at, it was teleporting them _both_. Bickslow couldn't even do it at all, though. He was still figuring out what he was capable of doing, eighteen years down the track. Still, he was used to finding himself someplace else with his arch nemesis on top of him. She'd slapped him a few dozen times for his comments over the years, too, but whatever.

"Don't _watch_ them!" she hissed once she had scrambled off him and was instead sitting next to him on the sofa.

"I didn't _mean_ to watch them," the reaper tried defending himself, only folding his arms and sitting back.

"Well, you were standing there," Lucy pointed out.

"It wasn't like I wanted to be standing there."

"You could have left the room and let them get on with it privately! Or, better yet, you could have just sat out here like a _normal_ reaper and not been a giant perv." But when Bickslow only shrugged and lifted his hand to stare at his nails, Lucy's brow furrowed and she stared at the reaper beside her for a moment before finally asking, "Where were you today, anyway?" Usually Bickslow was always there, watching their human with her and playing stupid card games to keep themselves occupied, just because there wasn't really anything else to do other than that. But that day, he'd been unusually absent, and Lucy had been just a little bored without her annoying reaper to keep her company.

Bickslow shrugged again. "Was busy," he mumbled.

"So busy you couldn't even make it to his date tonight to see him choke on the entrée?"

"Kid wasn't gonna die today anyway. Didn't need to be there." If it was one thing Bickslow was certain of, it was that no matter what happened, his human was not going to be giving up his soul as long as the date remained what it was. So he'd really had no reason to be there, not when he'd had his baby sister's college graduation to go to.

He could barely remember anything about his life at that point – couldn't remember where he'd lived, what he'd done, if he'd done anything worthwhile in his twenty-something years on that planet. He remembered his family, though. Just. He remembered them because he'd had the pleasure of going to his own funeral. Lucy had made sure of that.

But Bickslow couldn't tell his guardian angel companion about how he'd kept an eye on his parents and his little sister for all those years, too, and he most definitely couldn't tell her where he'd been that day. Because reapers weren't supposed to miss people or get attached to humans. Lucy had made a point of making sure he knew that. Lucy also made a point of making sure he knew all about being a reaper, too, because he was just her lil' baby reaper and she knew so much more about them than he himself did.

So he just remained silent for a change and tried not to pay too much attention to the quiet sigh Lucy let out before a book was appearing in her hands and she began to quietly read.

It was only when Bickslow got bored of staring at his nails that he realised something, and he couldn't help but share it out loud – because really, why not? "You know what? I really miss sex." The fact his human's door was open and he could _hear_ them didn't help that he was thinking of it.

Lucy was suddenly choking on air. " _Really?_ " Of all the things the reaper could say, it just _had_ to be that, didn't it?

"What? I do." He almost would've forgotten it had been eighteen years since he'd technically been laid if it weren't for the fact his human's eighteenth birthday just happened to be that day. He could see why Lucy had stopped counting. "Can reapers even get laid though?" He sure hoped so.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

"'Cause you're a know-it-all," Bickslow claimed. Lucy only shrugged and looked back down to her book. "So you're saying you've never actually tried to get laid as a guardian angel?"

"It's none of your business, but no," Lucy grumbled. Oh, if only she had somewhere else to be right then.

Bickslow was almost a little shocked. No sex in centuries? That had to be lonely as all hell. "Well, I'm all for being your—Okay, Jesus, don't throw a book at me! I was only kidding!" Well, he hadn't been kidding. Not originally. But Bickslow figured it was safer to just say that to avoid having another book thrown at him. It was a good thing he couldn't feel that much pain anymore, but still.

But even if Lucy obviously wasn't interested in finding out whether or not reapers or angels could even have physical relationships (or which each other, too. Bickslow was sure there was probably some kind of rule against it anyway), Bickslow still wanted to know. So he only sighed and stood up from the lounge and looked to his nails on one hand again. "Well, in that case," he began, only quickly glancing down to the angel with an eyebrow raised at him. "I have a long overdue date with my left hand. So if you'll excuse me."

* * *

"Doesn't it bother you that us reapers always win in the end?"

Lucy only looked up to the reaper sitting opposite her at the small table outside the small café, and she smiled. "Not at all," she answered happily.

"Why not?" Bickslow asked.

Thirty years, he'd been getting to know the competitive side of Lucy. Thirty years, he'd been arguing with her about when their human's time would come to an end, with him always claiming it would be that day – sometimes their human got close, though – and with her always rolling her eyes and telling him otherwise.

Thirty years.

It had really just been thirty years of Bickslow doing everything he could to get their human to give up his soul, as horrible as it was, just because it would mean Lucy wouldn't have to put up with _him_ anymore, and thirty years of Lucy saving his life.

He'd always wondered why she even bothered. She really hadn't liked him for a long time. It was the way she was built, he supposed, since they were natural enemies in a way. But she'd always just said she could never let her dislike of reapers interfere with the natural order of things, or something like that (Bickslow had stopped listening at one point). When she wasn't able to save her human, she wouldn't. It was only when she knew she could do nothing that she would give in and give up, in a way.

But that almost bothered Bickslow. Because for thirty years, he'd been watching her save their human from countless things. Tiny things, most of the time. Tiny things that not even their human knew about, because with Lucy as his guardian angel, the one he didn't even know he had at all, he hadn't needed to know or worry about anything. But for thirty years, he'd competed with her. And… he'd come to like how competitive she was. He probably shouldn't have, but he did. It made things fun, and honestly, Bickslow didn't think he'd even _want_ to be a reaper if it weren't for the fact it was fun. He'd never wanted it in the first place, but he'd come to enjoy it because of Lucy, in his own, twisted way.

Still, no matter what, Lucy could never win in the end. The angels would always lose. Because in the end, the reaper was always going to collect their human's soul. And Bickslow almost hated that he would be the one to win. He'd never thought about it much until then, as they'd just sat there outside that little café in the supposed most romantic city in the world – he'd never been when he'd been alive, so he figured he was missing the whole _romantic_ part of it – just… waiting for something. He didn't want to win. He was just as competitive as Lucy was, but with that, he almost wanted Lucy to be able to win. He didn't want her to lose, because in a way, Bickslow knew he'd still feel like he'd lost, anyway, because it would all be over.

All of it would be over so quickly. He'd win. Lucy would lose. And Bickslow wanted to know why losing didn't bother her, because it bothered him far more than he knew it should.

So Lucy only shrugged and kept her kind smile on her lips as she gave him her answer. "Because everyone has their time. And when their time is up, there is nothing left for me to possibly do, no matter how much I want there to be," she said softly. "I always remember that I did everything I could to get them there, too, so it doesn't bother me that I always lose, as you put it. I never like seeing a human die before their time. It's not fair."

Bickslow sighed and sipped at the warm coffee as he looked back out to the busy street in front of them. Everyone has their time. He'd heard Lucy say it before, but he'd really never cared. Not until _their_ human had reached it. "And what about me?" he asked then, not looking back to her, only keeping his eyes forward. He was still waiting for what was to come. "Do you think it was my time?"

"No."

"No?"

Lucy shook her head. "If it had been, you wouldn't have become a reaper," she said sadly. She hadn't told Bickslow that. She almost wished she hadn't had to, just because she knew Bickslow still hadn't _completely_ adjusted, but she'd figured she'd have to do it at some point before it was all over for their human. "I wouldn't have become a guardian angel either if it had been my time. But there's nothing we can do about that now…"

He knew there wasn't. But now Bickslow couldn't help but wonder just what he could've done if he hadn't died when he had. "And… What about the kid?" he asked. "Think it's his time?" He knew it was, but he wanted to know if Lucy knew that, too.

And the sigh she let out answered that. "Yeah, it is," she whispered. And that time, she wouldn't be able to save him. She'd always known when their human's time would really be up, right from the minute he'd been born. It was why she'd found Bickslow's constant _'You know what? I think it's going to be todays'_ so entertaining. Annoying, totally, because he'd always been so sure of himself, not quite having completely learned what he was capable of at the time, but it had been amusing watching him come into his abilities, even when she'd been the one to teach him all of what he now knew (really, she knew way too much about reapers).

Still, she'd never had any intentions of telling Bickslow just when their human's time would be up. That was something he was supposed to learn on his own, and now that their human's time was coming to an end, Lucy couldn't help but be a little proud of her lil' baby reaper. He'd learned so much.

With another quiet sigh, Lucy looked down to her watch – the one that kept ticking backwards, counting down the little time their human had left. She supposed they should go then and get ready for the inevitable. And so without a word, and in a second, they were appearing side-by-side on the opposite side of the street, the pedestrians stepping around them naturally to walk along the crosswalk and get to wherever it was they needed to be, and just waiting.

"I really wish it wasn't today," the reaper sighed, looking up to the clear blue skies above them. "It's such a nice day."

"I know," Lucy agreed. But not everyone could die on a gloomy day. That would be too kind.

"Sucks the kid's on his honeymoon, too. You sure you can't give him an extra week or something?"

She gave him a soft smile when she looked up to him. "You know I can't." She really would if she could, but it was their human's time. There was nothing left for her to do.

And so then it happened. Lucy's watch finally stopped ticking just like it always did, and in front of them, lying in the middle of the crosswalk and surrounded by the dozens of shocked pedestrians, was their human. And not even Bickslow with his morbid sense of humour could find it in himself to see the humour of their human dying in the most romantic city in the world from a heart attack on his honeymoon, just because there was no humour to find at all.

Lucy only watched silently as the reaper knelt down on the ground beside their human and collected the still bright green soul from his body. She'd cried once upon a time, but she'd been doing it for too long for her to cry then. That was just life, and every human had their time. Bickslow was just seeing that, and even if his sole purpose was to collect souls and make sure they didn't get stuck in that world (it happened, and it was never very nice), Lucy could still see he found it difficult.

But he was her lil' baby reaper and eventually, he wouldn't find it so difficult. Maybe it would be when it was time for his next human, or maybe it wouldn't be for centuries. Lucy didn't know that.

And not long after, with their human's soul safely where it belonged, the reaper and the angel only found themselves sitting on a metal beam at the top of the city's most famous landmark. Lucy never would've thought she'd find herself just a little sad that _their_ time was up, too, just because he was rude, obnoxious, arrogant, and had the most warped sense of humour she'd ever had the misfortune of witnessing. But there she was, feeling like she'd miss her reaper.

He really wasn't all bad, though. That much, she would admit.

But it was time for them to move on, too, and go and take their mandatory break between humans before being assigned to a new one. Lucy just didn't really know how to say goodbye. She usually didn't, either, but she wanted to.

It was Bickslow's sigh that brought her out of her thoughts, though. "I guess this is it then, huh?" he mumbled.

"Yup. This is it."

"Bet you're glad too, right?"

"Oh, _very_ ," Lucy groaned, though it was with a smile as she turned to face him. "Couldn't be happier."

The angel was a liar. That much Bickslow knew. But he could also deal with it, because he knew Lucy had strangely come to like his company and would miss him at least a little bit, and that made him feel better about himself because he'd miss her, too. Probably more than he should, too. "Uh-huh. Sure you couldn't," he grinned back at her.

But their time was up. Bickslow knew that. He didn't like it, but it was time to go their separate ways. He was just a little curious to find out what happened next for him. He knew he had a bit of a break, though he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, but what came after that? Did he just get reassigned at the drop of a hat and show up at some kid's birth like he had right after he'd died? Time could only tell, he figured.

So then Bickslow only let out another sigh and turned back to the guardian angel beside him. He was sure he was blushing just a little, but he could deal with that, just because he wouldn't ever see Lucy again and she wouldn't be able to tease him about it. "Well, since this is goodbye and all," he began, not doing much to hide his disappointment. "I figure I should probably just come out and say that I'm glad I got paired with you for my first human." Because of all the guardian angels in the world he could have been stuck with for just thirty years, Bickslow was glad it was Lucy. And really, he was a very happy lil' baby reaper.

Lucy couldn't stop herself from launching herself at the reaper, quickly wrapping her arms around his shoulders and nuzzling his cheek with her own. "Aw, my baby reaper is all grown up now," she giggled. She couldn't help but tease him one last time.

"Oh, shut up."

"Mm, no. But, you know you're _always_ going to be my lil' baby reaper, right?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way, baby," he grinned.

Lucy could only roll her eyes. He'd ruined it. Sort of. (Not really.) And since Lucy really was just a little sadder about it all than she'd expected to be, she only sat back and left her hand on his shoulder, and then gave him a rough shove forwards. Even falling, Bickslow didn't lose his grin, and he only waved up at her one last time as he shouted, "See you never, Lucy!"

* * *

When Lucy felt herself being drawn towards her new human come the end of her mandatory break, she only smiled softly to herself and let herself be sent to them like she always did.

She didn't find herself in a hospital room that time, not like she had with her last two humans where hospitals had become more accessible through time. But instead, she found herself in someone's home – a lounge room, specifically. And her human who had yet to actually enter the world was already surrounded by their abundantly large and over-excited family. It was nice, almost. She'd always enjoyed that part the most, just because everyone was always so happy and it there was always so much joy and happiness ahead of her human.

She already knew how long her human had, and thankfully, it wasn't just thirty years. Then again, depending on what kind of miserable reaper she was paired with that time, that could end up being a horrible thing.

But of course, with all of the bustling going about in the middle of the room, Lucy didn't even notice the man leaning against the wall and staying out of the way until she turned to find him staring back at her, popcorn in hand and a horribly annoying smirk on his lips. "Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me, huh?"

Once again, Lucy was only wondering just what it was she'd done in her past life that was so horrible to warrant her having to spend another eighty-nine years with a reaper like Bickslow.

But then again, if she had to be stuck with anyone for another nearly ninety years, she'd choose Bickslow. There were worse ways to spend her time.

* * *

 _Firstly, this was originally inspired by a prompt I saved a million years ago, and this_ _was obviously supposed to end up being a little funnier and focus more on the actual Bickslow being annoying part..._

 _ **"Y** **ou're a grim reaper and I'm a guardian angel. We're assigned to the same human and you keep insisting that their time is up when I'm telling you it's not."**_

 _But it didn't happen, obviously._

 _Secondly, there's a reason I'm not marking this as complete yet. Originally, this was always going to be a one-shot, but the more I wrote of it, the more I realised that I could turn this into another universe with other one-shots and such (You know, like I do with a few of my other stories). But, for now, I'm still not too sure if I want to do that. I guess it depends on how well this chapter goes and what you all think of it. I already have ideas for other chapters, but I'm not sure whether I'll write them or not at this point._

 _But still, I hope you enjoyed this. It jumps a lot, and it's not exactly smooth, but oh well. But please remember to review and let me know what you thought of it!_

 _\- April_


	2. A Reaper is Born

_Thank you all for the reviews and follows on the first chapter. I still like writing this AU, so yeah, there's more to come. There'll be a lot more information about this AU as a whole at the end of this chapter though, so please read that when you're done if you're interested in where this is going._

* * *

 **A Reaper is Born**

* * *

When Lucy first arrived in the delivery room, patiently awaiting the arrival of her human, she was at first just a little concerned about the lack of _reaper_ in the room. In the hundreds of years she had lived (well, something in the hundreds, anyway), the reaper she was paired with had always been there first. So when she was summoned with the impending arrival of her next human, Lucy had just automatically assumed it would be no different that time.

But maybe things would be different that time. She'd been getting a little bored over the last few decades if she had to be perfectly honest, so she was more than ready for something to happen to spice things up a little – being immortal got so boring so fast.

And so as Lucy just settled herself in the corner and waited for her human to arrive, she wondered just what the next thirty years would be like and just what her reaper would be like. Each one was different in their own way, just like humans.

That was when someone seemingly fell from the ceiling, though, and Lucy yelped and just about jumped out of her skin as the person landed with a thud on the floor, face down just a few paces away from her.

When she looked up, there was strangely no hole in the ceiling, and the man on the floor – who was indeed now getting up – didn't look dirty or dusty enough to look like he'd been crawling through the vents anyway. And considering the fact no one else in the room seemed to notice him there, just like they didn't notice her, only led Lucy to one conclusion.

That was her reaper.

The man picking himself off the ground, patting himself down and looking around the room with a look of panic on his face, was her reaper.

"I… How…" Bickslow didn't really know what to think as he looked around the clean room. He shouldn't be there. Why was he even there in the first place? _How_ was he there? And why the fuck wasn't anyone paying attention to him?! He had literally just landed face down on the floor in a room he most obviously didn't belong, and yet no one seemed to even be looking at him. They were all too busy staring at the— _holy shit, is she actually giving birth right now?_ "What's… What the fuck is going on right now?!"

Lucy only stared at the blue-haired man on the ground as he continued to quickly look around. _He couldn't be… could he?_

"I don't… I don't understand!" He just shouldn't be there. He should be… He should be on the plane going back home for his little sister's birthday! "How am I even here…?!"

 _No… He isn't…_

Bickslow didn't even really seem to notice the blonde staring at him as he continued trying to figure out the situation. He briefly wondered if it was all a dream – even pinched his arm quickly to see if that old trick actually worked – but when nothing around him changed, Bickslow's mind could only return to the flight that he'd been so sure he'd been on just moment earlier. But how he could suddenly be in a hospital when the last thing he could remember was being thirty odd thousand feet up in the air, he didn't understand.

He was so sure he had actually been on that plane, too. He could remember the kid that was sitting behind him kicking his chair since they'd boarded, and he remembered the arguing couple that had been sitting next to him. He even remembered the bitch of a flight attendant.

And it was when Bickslow slowly began to remember everything else – the oxygen masks coming down from the tops of the cabin and everyone screaming and crying – that the room they were in seemed to descend into chaos, too. And as much as Lucy wanted to focus more on the human she was to be following for the next three decades, the reaper, strangely, was more important right then. She didn't want to be having to deal with a reaper who couldn't control his powers, but it was something she had to do. Her human would be fine once she got the reaper out of the room and away from everyone else, but coincidentally, getting out of there was what the reaper sitting on the floor needed the most right then, too. Because if she was right and it was really what she thought it was, then the reaper who had landed on the floor in a heap just moments before was a brand new reaper, all shiny and new and still just a little too human. And that… That was not a good thing.

So Lucy was quickly pushing herself away from the wall and moving to kneel down in front of the man who only sat against another part of the wall and was bringing his knees up to chest. He didn't even notice her then, seemingly too occupied by his own thoughts. Though when Lucy placed her hand on her arm, he flinched, but a simple touch like that was all she'd needed to be getting them _both_ out of there, and then in a second, they were up on the rooftop of the same hospital.

If Lucy had had the time to worry about how her _teleporting_ skills had never been that great, because it only meant she'd somehow landed herself on top of the reaper, she would've. But she didn't have time to do that right then, and so she was just quickly pulling herself away from him, just as Bickslow scrambled away from her, too.

Bickslow quickly looked back around himself before setting his eyes back on the blonde. "You—what did you… I… I don't…" His voice cracked and his chest was tight. He had so many questions that he wanted to know the answers to, but he just didn't know where to even begin. All he wanted to do was close his eyes to open them again and for everything to make sense again.

Lucy was cautious as she approached him again. There was really no need to frighten him any more than he already was, and she felt horrible for thinking that it was strangely adorable just how much he reminded her of a little lost puppy. "What's your name?" she asked softly as she kneeled just in front of him.

 _My name?_ "U-Um… Bi-Bickslow…" he whispered.

She held out her hand to him and smiled. "It's really nice to meet you, Bickslow." Well, she'd probably end up hating him by the time their human was a year old if he ended up being one to actually spend his time watching them like she did, but she still had to be nice to the guy. "I'm Lucy."

Bickslow couldn't help scooting back a little on the concrete roof as he brought his knees back up to his chest. Lucy seemed like a trustworthy person, but he was still wary. He just couldn't help it. Still, he really did feel like he could trust the blonde in front of him – or at the very least, she'd have answers, and that was what he needed. Swallowing thickly first and taking another slightly steadying breath, he asked her, "How am I… here? What's… What's going on?"

There wasn't exactly a good way to tell someone that they'd died, especially when they seemed to have no idea that they'd died at all. So instead, Lucy asked her own question. "What do you remember, Bickslow? From before. What do you remember from just before?"

"I… I don't know…"

"Where were you?"

"I was… I was on a plane." That much he could definitely remember, but maybe it wasn't so true. Bickslow shook his head. "I don't know. I must've… I must've just blacked out or something… Had too much to drink after landing maybe or… Or something… And I just… I just don't remember landing or coming here." Maybe that was the case. Maybe he'd imagined the chaos on the plane. Maybe everything really did make sense. "That's it though, right? I… I just… blacked out?"

Except Lucy really didn't seem to agree that it was all a misunderstanding of sorts and that it was all just Bickslow's imagination. She knew that it really wasn't, but what Lucy didn't understand, was why Bickslow didn't what he actually was. They were supposed to have it all explained to them after their transformation into a reaper – or, guardian angel – and they were supposed to be given time to actually deal with it. They weren't supposed to be thrown into immortality without a single idea as to what was going on. But with Bickslow, that was seemingly what had happened. He just didn't know it yet, and she was the one that had to tell him.

She'd never actually had to inform someone of their own death before. It was quite an odd feeling.

She shook her head and gave a meek apology. "That's not quite what happened, I'm afraid. You didn't really black out…"

 _Then what?_ "But… Then how am I here…? The plane is the last thing I can remember. I can't be here…" But then it seemed to dawn on him what Lucy was probably trying to tell him, and he could only give a small ' _oh'_ before resting his chin on his arms with a sullen look setting on his face. "I'm dead, aren't I?"

That was what it had to be, right? The plane, everyone panicking, then suddenly ending up in a place nowhere fucking near where he'd actually been needing to go, and not actually being able to remember getting there. And then there was the whole fucking issue where Lucy could seemingly teleport – that certainly wasn't normal. And she just looked so sorry for him, like she didn't really want to be stuck telling him that he'd died at all.

And she didn't, of course, but it still had to be done. It upset her just a little that he was there at all, too, because it meant it hadn't even been his actual time. He shouldn't have died that day at all, but he had. But even if Bickslow could at least realise his death on his own, Lucy wasn't wanting to tell him that he could've had _decades_ left to spend happily and doing things he'd enjoyed doing, if it hadn't been someone else's time to go. "You are," Lucy said softly.

"Oh… I see…" _The plane must've crashed then…_ Maybe that was why he couldn't remember his final moments. He was sure he would've been as scared as he was right then once he'd realised what was happening up in the air, and he probably would've thought about his family and how much he'd miss them – god, that hurt. He wouldn't see Millie – his baby sister – again, whose fourth birthday was only a few days away as it was… Or even his parents. And he might not have gotten along with them at the best of times, but they were still his parents and he did really fucking love them. But he wouldn't get to hug them again, or even tell them that he was sorry for being an asshole as a teenager (and as an adult) and making their lives difficult.

But he was dead apparently. Death just didn't really feel like what he'd always assumed it would feel like. He sure didn't _feel_ dead.

Lucy was just a little surprised by how well Bickslow seemed to be taking it, too. He'd calmed down a considerable amount in just a few short minutes, and it almost worried her. He still looked so ridiculously lost and broken, but he wasn't breaking down like she'd thought he would. He wasn't even trying to tell her she was wrong, either. He'd just… accepted it, it seemed. Lucy was almost sure that was a good thing, though, because the more accepting he was, the easier _her_ job would be.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly. She knew it was still a lot to take in, and she did doubt that his answer would be yes, but she had to ask. Well, she thought so, anyway.

Bickslow shrugged. "No." Of course he wasn't fucking okay, but he didn't really see the point in trying to do anything about it, not if there really was nothing for him to do. "But this is real, right? I'm really dead?"

"Well…"

The new reaper rolled his eyes and sighed up to the perfectly blue skies above them. "Oh, for fuck's sake," he groaned. "What now?" What else could there possibly be to it? Either he was dead, or not dead. There could not be an in between. Now it was just getting annoying.

Lucy sat back suddenly though, literally taken aback by the sudden shift in the blue-haired man. There was no way she'd be able to put up with that for the next thirty _minutes_ , let alone thirty _years_. "W-Well," she began, firming her gaze though still trying to be gentle about it. "You haven't exactly _moved on_ , if that's what you think _this_ is."

"What? So this isn't the afterlife and you're not actually here to guide me to Heaven?" _Or Hell. Probably Hell._ He had assumed that was what it was, being that he was getting told he'd died and all…

"Ah, no. I'm not here to guide you anywhere, because you're not going anywhere. You're essentially immortal now."

"Immortal? You're fucking kidding me, right?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

"Because I'm beginning to think that none of this is actually real like you claim it to be, and that I'm really just high off my fucking face right now—"

"Trust me," she cut in. "This is real. You've died, and now you get to live out your days as a reaper." Honestly, the guy was a nightmare already. Bluntness had been absolutely necessary. This was why they were supposed to have a welcoming of sorts after their death, because it was the only way to have them actual believe it and not doubt it.

And Bickslow was back to being the confused and lost soul he'd been just moments prior. For a second, he really had begun to think that he hadn't actually died and that the seemingly magical blonde in front of him was just a figment of his overactive imagination – though why he'd made himself end up in a delivery room, he had no fucking idea. But, he wasn't imagining any of it. What he'd realised before… That was all true. All of it was real. The plane, the delivery room, the hospital rooftop, Lucy – well, whatever Lucy actually was, she was real. But what she was telling him was all real, too.

He was some-fucking-how _immortal_. What the fuck did that even mean? And what the fuck was a reaper? So it was with a small voice once again that Bickslow said, "I'm a… _reaper_?" When Lucy nodded, his brow furrowed and he asked next, "What the hell does that even mean?"

"I think you call them _grim_ reapers in the fairy tales," Lucy said. "Although your kind have never been fond of that particular name. But you collect souls now."

"Souls? Like… Human souls?"

Lucy nodded again. "When a person dies, you're there to make sure their soul gets to the right place. The Veil can get overcrowded very quickly if there are too many lost souls in it, and that's really not a good thing." But she wasn't going to go into detail about that particular plane of existence right then. That could wait.

"So, what…" Bickslow sniffled before continuing, "I just walk around taking peoples' souls when they die?" _Seems pretty fucking morbid…_

"Not quite. You get assigned to a human when they're born – which is why you were in that room downstairs just before," she explained. "And you follow that human for the remainder of their life, and then when once they've passed, you collect their soul to make sure it doesn't get stuck. Then it's like a cycle. After one human dies, you get assigned to another as they're entering the world."

Bickslow nodded. Seemed relatively easy to understand, even if it all really was one completely fucked up situation. But a grim reaper, huh? That surprisingly sounded pretty damn cool, considering the circumstances where he was dead and all. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about actually taking someone's soul, but it didn't sound like he had much choice in the matter.

"So um… So are you a reaper too?" he asked.

"Oh, god no."

"Oh." He'd thought that that was what Lucy was, since she was there and telling him all of that; maybe she'd be his 'Reaper Teacher' or something like that. But it seemed not…

"I'm not a reaper," she continued. "But I am a guardian angel."

"A… guardian angel? You mean those actually exist?"

Lucy nodded quickly. "'Course we do! Since the beginning of time, really, just like reapers have. We work together, in a sense, except we're opposites. You have the ability to cause chaos in our human's life, while I have the ability to keep that chaos from affecting them."

"Uh… Right…" First, it was reapers, though, and now guardian angels? What else actually existed and wasn't just the stuff of fairy tales? It wouldn't surprise him right then if it turned out unicorns actually existed, too. _That would've made Millie happy…_ "But, uh…" Bickslow cleared his throat as he finally leant forward, just to try and peek around Lucy. "Where's your wings? Angels have wings, right?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. She did actually have wings. She just hid them like every other guardian angel in the world, because they were one, annoying. And two, redundant. She couldn't even fly with them, and even if she could, teleporting was just so much more convenient. Her wings were really just there for show at that point, and in all the years she had been a guardian angel, she'd never been able to figure out just why her kind had them in the first place.

Pulling off her jacket, just because it was a really nice jacket and she didn't want to put holes in the back of it, Lucy explained, "Most of us keep them hidden, just because they are completely useless. It's just like how reapers actually own scythes, even though there is no physical need for them."

"Like, pointy scythes?"

"Yes, pointy scythes." With her jacket beside her on the concrete roof, Lucy sighed again before she gave a small roll of her shoulders before she let the wings she'd kept tucked in for centuries already fold out from between her shoulder blades. "But yes, guardian angels do in fact have wings."

Bickslow only stared at her in awe as she spread the large and ridiculously fluffy wings out on either side of her, watching as the pure white feathers separated a little before collapsing together again as she seemed to give a quick flutter of them. Bickslow was sure that completely spread out and not tucked in, they were larger than she actually was tall.

"Holy shit…" He couldn't help but push himself forward so he could crawl around her, ducking under her right wing quickly to come behind her until he was looking at the two long tears at the back of her shirt where said wings were now sprouting from. _So they really are hidden._ "Can I touch them?" he asked then, peeking over the top of her left wing.

Lucy sighed again. "I suppose so—hey! Don't pull on my feathers! I can feel that, you know!" She couldn't stop herself from having her other wing come around flick the new reaper with the tip of it. How dare he try and pluck her wing feathers! That hurt!

"Sorry," he snickered. He just couldn't help himself. They were so pretty! And so fluffy! And he only ignored how _done_ Lucy looked as he kneeled in front of her again and just proceeded to play with one of her wings – running his hand along the very top to see how the bones moved when he forced her to stretch, and as his other hand only buried itself in the softer and shorter feathers closer to her actual arms.

But it was occurring to Bickslow then, that no matter how amazing things had seemed for those few short moments, he was still dead. He'd left the living world behind and everyone and everything in it. He wasn't even really human anymore, was he? Not if he was an immortal _reaper_. As awesome as that did actually sound, it still really fucking sucked. There were so many things he'd miss out on seeing and doing… But all of that was gone. It had all been over quicker than he'd ever imagined.

When Bickslow sat back down on the ground and hugged his knees to his chest again, Lucy couldn't help the way her wings drooped as she watched him. He was just so sad… And she was just a little worried about how quickly his moods could seemingly change, but Lucy knew it was really just because a lot had happened in a short amount of time. He was just a little overwhelmed, surely.

Still, she couldn't help but quietly ask, "Would you like a hug?" She was good at giving hugs, and if the reaper needed a hug right then, well… She'd hug him. For the first and only time, of course.

Bickslow only a gave a small nod, and Lucy was smiling softly as she crawled forward to sit down next to him instead. Her arms went around him first, and when he laid his head on her shoulder, Lucy only sighed quietly to herself before folding her wings completely around him, too. They might as well be useful for _something_ , and Bickslow really wasn't going to complain. They were fluffy.

* * *

When Bickslow had the _pleasure_ of seeing his own funeral just two weeks later, that was when he seemed to finally accept that all of it was real and he wasn't just on one hell of a bender.

But as much as he had hated how Lucy had taken him there that day, because he had absolutely hated seeing his parents so destroyed, and he had absolutely hated knowing that all his parents had been able to do for his baby sister right then was tell her that her big brother wouldn't be able to come visit anymore – he had still been _grateful_ that Lucy had made sure he'd been there, despite how painful it had been. Because he'd needed to be there.

He'd needed to go to his own funeral to come to terms with his death.

The last two weeks had only seen Bickslow going back and forth, just like he had been to a lesser extent when he'd first met Lucy. Even with Lucy teaching him all about his new _existence_ and showing him all the impossible things he'd never thought he'd be able to do, Bickslow hadn't been able to help how he'd still doubted its authenticity every so often. Reapers, guardian angels, immortality… None of should it exist. It was the stuff of dreams, fairy tales, and hallucinations.

But it did exist. It existed in the real world, just beyond what Bickslow had always known. All of it had always been there. It was just that no one could _see_ it. And his entire life, Bickslow had had two extra people following him around and either fucking with him – like he'd done with his new human once or twice already, just to see what he was actually capable of – or doing their best to make sure he grew up happily and with as little unnecessary drama as possible. He, like every single person on the planet since the beginning of human life, had had his own reaper and guardian angel watching out for him.

And now it was his turn to be that reaper.

Bickslow was finally coming to terms with that and everything it meant.

Still, even accepting that he really had died, there was only so much of standing right behind his parents at his own funeral and just wishing that they could see him – but they couldn't, because humans couldn't see them – and that he could hug them and tell them that he was really okay and that he was there. Sort of. But it hurt seeing all of the people he'd cared about be there, and even having already begun to lose what humanity remained within him and his ability to deeply care about anyone or anything again, it still really fucking sucked.

So he was only appearing at Lucy's side again (he figured he might as well practice his teleportation skills while he was at it) at the edge of the cemetery, and was looping his arm through hers before gently beginning to pull her over to the winding road that ran through.

"You don't want to stay any longer?" she asked him.

Bickslow only gave a shake of his head. "I always hated going to funerals, but I think my own funeral takes the cake for being the most horrible," he mused. "Besides…" The reaper looked down to the guardian angel beside him – the one who had taken to calling him her _lil' baby reaper_ for some ridiculous reason – with a small smile. "You promised to take me scythe shopping today."

And as redundant as a scythe was, he'd been strangely looking forward to going and picking out his very own deadly – well, sort of – weapon for the last two weeks.

* * *

 _Firstly, this is mostly not edited, just because I've had a horrible day and didn't want to wait until when I was feeling better again to edit and post this. As usual, I'll get to it when I can._ _But, now that that is out of the way, I can talk about the actual story._

 _So, like my other random AU chapter stories, this is not going to be written in the order it's set. Obviously, this second chapter is right at the beginning of their timeline, so already, we're out of order. But like with my other ones, I'll try and make it clear just when it's set. This one will be a little different since time isn't so much of a factor, being immortal and all... But it'll work out. Probably._

 _Also, romance will eventually happen. But, that being said, anything involving them in a romantic nature, will be an AU within the AU. Basically, if romance gets involved, it will be on an alternate timeline in a way, since this story is first and foremost, predominantly based on their friendship. (If I could draw what I mean, it would be like a fork in a train track, I guess.)_

 _Also... Let's talk about smut. I have actually already started one very much M rated chapter involving these particular two (it needed to happen), and like I said above, it will ultimately be in an AU within this AU/alternate timeline sort of thing (so confusing). That being said, I'm not sure whether to change the rating of this story to M to post this chapter in here when it's done - which will not be any time soon. Or, to post it separately and just mark it as being part of this AU with Reaper!Bickslow and Angel!Lucy. Please let me know what you think will be the best idea!_

 _And... I think that's it. So, as usual, I hope you liked this chapter. It's... odd, I guess. But please let me know what you thought of it if you can!_


	3. Life and Death

_A/N: I've been on some kind of roll with writing and updating lately, so I thought while I'm at it, I'll keep working on these minor fic chapters since a lot of them have been sitting in my WIP folder half-finished since some point last year._

 _I still have a couple more chapters planned for this AU... Not too sure yet. I had limited ideas to begin with. What I will say, though, is that there are two side-AU (basically what I'm calling any side-story of this AU that deviates from the 'canon' in this AU). One of them is, well, smut - assuming I ever get around to finishing it - and the other involves them becoming human again, and basically they grow up together and it's pure fluff. Naturally, these don't follow the canon storyline that I've created for this AU, hence why they will be posted separately when I eventually get around to finishing them._

* * *

 **Life and Death**

* * *

If it was one thing Bickslow didn't particularly love about being a reaper, it was that things like birthdays and holidays were never celebrated.

He'd already seen so many Christmases and Thanksgivings go by – so many that he'd already lost count – that he'd forgotten what it felt like to celebrate something himself. Every year, Bickslow saw how much joy and happiness his humans felt from being able celebrate just the simplest thing like a birthday with their family and friends, but it had just been so long since he'd felt that himself for the same reasons that he honestly didn't know how it felt.

And he felt joy and he felt happiness, because by some stroke of luck he'd found himself paired with that one particular guardian angel right from his first day as a reaper. But the joy and the happiness he felt from getting to spend almost every hour of every day with that guardian angel, or even from constantly learning something new about the world – it just wasn't the same.

Bickslow just wanted to be able to _celebrate_ something again. But reapers…

Reapers, and even angels… They didn't have anything to celebrate. There was nothing in their world that was worth celebrating. And that was what Bickslow hated the most.

So he only decided that _something_ needed to be celebrated. The only problem was that Bickslow didn't know _what_ to celebrate, but he knew that he wanted it to be grand and memorable; he _needed_ it to be something he could remember until the end of time itself. Because honestly, things were just getting boring, and he missed being able to look back on his memories and laugh about everything, all because he couldn't remember a single thing about his life.

The fact that he couldn't remember anything about his life as a human was exactly why he didn't want to celebrate anything that was distinctly his – like his birthday, or even his _death_ -day for that matter. It just didn't interest him, and even less interesting to him at that point in his life as a reaper were the holidays. He'd just seen them change so much over the decades that they'd lost all meaning to him, and after his parents had reached their times and then his baby sister had decades later, Bickslow had just stopped caring about anything that had once been all about family.

But then he remembered Lucy, not that he could _ever_ forget about her. She was the person he adored more than life – well, sort of – itself, and with them nearing the end of their third human in a row together, Bickslow really couldn't imagine being paired with any other guardian angel. He didn't want to be, either.

But celebrating something with Lucy – that was sure to be memorable. And he _loved_ the idea of being able to do something for her, too, because as far as Bickslow was concerned, Lucy deserved the whole goddamn universe. He couldn't give her that, as much as he wanted to. But he could give her something to celebrate and something to enjoy, and he was sure as hell going to try his best and make it something that Lucy wouldn't ever be able to forget.

The only problem was that Bickslow still didn't know all that much about Lucy. As immortal beings, they'd lost most of who they'd once been, so asking Lucy when her birthday (or _death_ -day) was, was simply out of the question, because she just wouldn't remember. Even then, Bickslow didn't want to ask Lucy anything, because he wanted it to be a surprise.

So that was how Bickslow found himself visiting the grand archives – the one place in their universe where both reapers and guardian angels could be simultaneously and there were zero segregations. Nothing in the grand archives belonged to just the reapers, and nothing belonged to just the angels, either. Every single thing in there was available to everyone.

No one really visited the archives, though, and Bickslow didn't blame them. It was just an oversized library with the records of every single person that had ever existed. The only reason he'd been there at all was because Lucy had taken him there not long after his re-birth as a reaper, just to let him know that it a place that actually existed. But for the most part, Bickslow hated the place, just because he'd found it a little weird that there were tomes describing each and every person that had ever lived on that planet. There was one for him there as well. The only problem was that it was sealed off from Bickslow – reapers and guardian angels alike weren't allowed to access their personal records of their human lives.

There were, of course, a few people that did like to frequent the archives, although they were mostly researchers and trying to figure out the last remaining mysteries of the world… Like how some people are reborn as reapers or angels, despite having lived their entire life like they'd been supposed to, whereas others just go straight on to the next world. From what Bickslow could tell, it involved a hell of a lot of reading, studying everyone's records in immense detail, and then experimenting with what little control they had over a human's life to see if it was something that occurred in their human life that determined being reborn as an immortal (all that was certain, as far as Bickslow knew, was that anyone who did die before their time, became a reaper just like he had). That was what reapers like Freed and Levy – and countless others – focused on, because they were _complete fucking nerds._

And as new and young as he was as a reaper (compared to others, at least), Bickslow could never see himself forfeiting his humans just to fucking _study_ them. He was pretty sure he'd hated it as a human himself, so doing as a reaper? Hell to the fucking _no_.

When Bickslow arrived at the grand archives that particular evening (well, it was his _human's_ evening, so it was _his_ evening as well), he wasn't the least bit surprised to find his favourite nerds sitting at two of the executive desks in the large hall, and with stacks of brown leather-wrapped tomes on either side of them. There were hundreds of other scattered about with their own stacks of records beside them, and then some were just sitting back with their feet up and chuckling at the life story of a random human.

Bickslow didn't bother talking to anyone that day though. He was there for one reason, and one reason alone.

He made his way towards the sectioned-off quarter of the archives, where all the records of every former and current reaper and angel existed. Bickslow had no idea who it was that moved each record over from the general section to the _immortals_ section, but he didn't really want to know. Whoever the guy was, he had one hell of a tedious job.

The immortals section was a little smaller than the general archives themselves, but the records of reapers and angels were stored a little differently. Those records utilised pockets of space that didn't exist in the human world (not that anything about his world was humanistic to begin with), which meant the amount of space required to hold ten records in the general section, was equal to a hundred in the immortals. Bickslow really had no idea why, but it was fancy, and the magic archives were pretty damn cool, so he wasn't going to question it.

An archive attendant greeted Bickslow when he passed through the gate to that section. "Good evening, Bickslow," the spritely old man behind the desk said. Bickslow wasn't fazed by him knowing his name, either – apparently, the people who worked in the archives knew everything and everyone automatically. Or that was what Lucy said. "How can I be of assistance?"

"I'm, uh… I'm looking for the records of someone," Bickslow answered. He'd never actually done this before, not for a guardian angel at least. He'd only ever accessed his sister's records, not long after she'd finally passed at the age of ninety-four. She was the only part of his human life that he could actually remember, and he planned on keeping it that way for as long as he could. Still, for humans, all Bickslow had to do was wander around for a file until he found the book he was looking for. Somehow Bickslow didn't think it was for same for the records of angels.

"A reaper's?"

"Angel's," he mumbled.

The man nodded. "Ah, I see." He hopped off his chair and walked around the desk, and motioned for Bickslow to follow him deeper into the archives. Bickslow could help but stare as he slowly followed. The man was shorter than _Levy_ , and his pure white beard was almost long enough that it touched the ground. "Do you have a name?"

"Um, Bickslow," he said.

"For the _angel_."

"Oh! Right! Sorry, uh. Lucy. That's all I know."

After walking for what felt like an hour, they finally stopped at a row labelled _Hea-Hea_ , and Bickslow followed the archive attendant halfway down the row. He climbed the ladder, then pulled himself along the rack. He scoured them for a moment, finger tracing the edges of the spines as he searched for the record in question, then suddenly exclaimed, "A-ha! Here she is…" The attendant carefully pulled the leather-bound tome from the sixth shelf, and gently blew the dust from the cover before climbing down the ladder to hand it to Bickslow. "Is this the one?"

"I don't know…" Bickslow mumbled. He opened it up though, and like with any other record, on the front page there was a moving portrait of the person it was about. And on that one, there was a portrait of Lucy, looking exactly the same as she did as a guardian angel. Below it, the name _'Lucy Heartfilia'_ was printed in fancy lettering, along with her birth date, death date, and location of both. Without a doubt, Bickslow knew it was the right record. "Actually, this is it. Thank you."

The other man nodded and smiled politely. "Glad to be of service. Just remember that these records cannot be taken out of the archives," he said. Bickslow nodded as he idly walked down the aisle, already reading the first page of Lucy's history. "When you're done, just place it on the cart at the end of the row. I'll leave you to it now."

"Uh-huh… Sure thing…"

And so Bickslow found somewhere to sit down, and read. And his eyes didn't leave the pages once, not until he was finished. But by the time he was finishing the last page, he was almost wishing he hadn't read Lucy's records. She'd had such an amazing life right at her fingertips, one with a family, but then… Then she'd died.

* * *

Regardless of how reading about Lucy's life and death as a human had made him feel, Bickslow still went ahead with his plans. It wasn't really a milestone or anything, because he would've been waiting decades for that and he was strangely impatient when it came to Lucy. Part of him had debated whether it was a good idea to go ahead with his celebration plans, but in the end, he'd decided to try and make it as joyous as he could. The last thing he wanted was to upset Lucy.

So, a few weeks after first reading Lucy's human record, Bickslow was taking Lucy's hand pulling Lucy away from their human for the night, ignoring her questions, and teleporting them to the rooftop garden that boasted the best views of the city at night. When Bickslow pulled out a cardboard hat and blew on the paper horn, Lucy couldn't help but laugh and roll her eyes at him.

"Alright, spill. What's all of this?" she managed to get out while putting her hand up beside her face to stop Bickslow from poking her with the damn paper horn.

"It's a celebration!" Bickslow answered excitedly. He got rid of the paper horn, thankfully (for the time being, at least), and then had two party poppers appearing in his hands, one for him and one for Lucy. She took it hesitantly, giving him a sceptic look in the process, before he let his own off and got them both covered in confetti and miniature streamers. "Man, I can't believe this things died out. They're so cool!"

Lucy scowled as she pulled paper from her hair. "They're _amazing_ …" She set hers in her pocket before crossing her arms over her chest, and then stepped away from Bickslow to look around the rooftop. There was nothing but a few herb and vegetable gardens, as well as some deck furniture and clothes lines. It certainly didn't look like there was going to be a celebration of any sort there. "But… How exactly is _this_ a celebration? And what are we celebrating to begin with?"

"Ah. Right." He'd forgotten to actually _set up_. So with a simple wave, the entire rooftop was transformed, lanterns suspended on ropes over the entire area, and comfy lounges next to the edge for them to sit and just wait for the sun to rise – it was supposed to be a spectacular view. "Better?"

That time, Lucy smiled. Sometimes she thought Bickslow's materialisation skill was better than her own. Her lil' baby reaper… She'd taught him so well. "Much better," she whispered.

"As for _what_ we are celebrating…" Bickslow began. He took Lucy's hand again to lead her over to the lounge chairs, and then sat down on the edge of one of the lounges, and let go of her hand just to lay his out in front of him, palms side up, and have a tray of perfectly decorated rainbow cupcakes with gold and silver dust sprinkled over the icing appear in front of him. "Well, we're celebrating just for the sake of it, really," he finished with a grin.

Okay, so it was a lie. Sort of. Knowing how Lucy had died, and knowing what she'd missed out on experiencing, Bickslow couldn't really bring himself to tell her that the day actually marked her 526th year as a guardian angel; and 526 years since she'd died at the mere age of nineteen. Her death wasn't exactly something to be celebrated, even if her death marked her birth as a guardian angel as well, and the latter… Well, Bickslow preferred the latter naturally.

So in the end, Bickslow hadn't really needed a reason to celebrate anything. All that mattered to him was that he got to have a little bit of _human_ fun with Lucy just once, because she was his best friend and he loved her and of course he liked making her happy.

And, once Lucy saw the cupcakes, her eyes were widening with delight and her mouth almost began to water. They didn't need to eat, but like many things angels and reapers still did, they did it because it was good. And _cupcakes_ , like the occasional nap every year or so, were _great_.

"Mmm… Please tell me they're chocolate…" Lucy murmured as she carefully picked up the cupcake from the top of the tray.

"Of course. Come on, I've known you for like, three humans. You think I don't know by now to always give you _chocolate_?" Bickslow scoffed. When Lucy had been teaching him to materialise things, about how they had the power to create anything they imagined, as long as they had a clear image of it in their head, she'd had him create a whole lot of sweet treats. Mostly double fudge brownies.

So, with their chocolate rainbow cupcakes, they made themselves comfortable on their lounge chairs and just enjoyed the city view while teasing each other as they usually did. It wasn't until Bickslow had wound up on Lucy's chair and the cupcakes had all been eaten, with Lucy leaning against his chest and his arms around her, that Bickslow began to feel guilty again.

Did Lucy even want to know what day it was? Did she want to remember just how it was she'd died? Bickslow supposed she didn't, but on the other hand… She was _happy_ now. Or at least he thought she was. Maybe telling her that it was the day she'd been born as a guardian angel wouldn't hurt her as much as he worried it might. And, hell, it had been 526 damn years. She'd have been able to move on by now, right?

Fuck it, though. If he didn't say it then, he was going to blurt it out eventually, and in his head, that would just be a disaster. And he didn't want it to be a disaster.

So he decided to tell her and just get it out with.

"I went to the grand archives again," he finally said softly. "A little while ago."

Lucy tilted her head into his shoulder to look up to him. "Yeah? Were you reading your sister's record again?"

"No. I was reading yours."

She looked back down and it was easy for Bickslow to notice the sudden shift in her. "Oh…" she whispered. That wasn't what Lucy had been expecting to hear in the slightest. She had to admit that it was a little unnerving that Bickslow knew more about her than she did – or at least about who she _had_ been. "Any good?" she laughed nervously.

Bickslow frowned. "I know when you died. _How_ you died."

"When was it?"

After a beat, he answered, "…Today." She tensed in his arms and Bickslow tightened his arms around her, ducking his head forward slightly just to glance over her shoulder and peer at her face. This wasn't a conversation that she was comfortable having. He could tell that.

"I see…"

Bickslow didn't know whether he should tell her the rest of what he knew, though. He could tell her all about her human life if she wanted to, tell her the exact time she'd met her husband in that life or the first time she'd ever truly felt proud of herself for something. He knew it all. Every single detail.

But did Lucy want to know all of that? He doubted it. Just like he doubted her wanting to know just how many years she'd been a kind, caring guardian angel, or how it was she'd come to reach her end in the first place.

But that was when Lucy surprised him, and she asked with a small voice, "How, um… How did it happen? You know… How did I… die?" It had been a hell of a long time since she'd died. That much Lucy knew. So… So maybe it wouldn't be that bad if Bickslow told her. She'd probably forget in a few years, a decade or so at most.

"…Are you sure? You probably don't—"

"Bickslow, please," she said a little more firmly, turning slightly just so she could look up at him a little easier. "Tell me."

With a sigh, Bickslow nodded. "Alright." He couldn't deny her anything if he'd tried, especially not when she looked at him with an almost ferocity in her eyes that he hadn't seen in… Well, years. "It… It was during childbirth."

"Oh."

If anything though, as much as it had upset him to find out how Lucy had died, he hadn't been that surprised, not once he'd seen the age she'd died at and the century she'd been alive in. The world she'd known then had been entirely different to the one Bickslow had grown up in, and then different again to the world they were currently in. Technology, medicine… None of it had really been around in Lucy's time. Most of it had been based on faith or natural remedies, but those kinds of things didn't do much for severe bleeding. Some things, faith couldn't heal.

"Girl or boy?" Lucy asked then.

"I, uh… I didn't find that out…" Bickslow mumbled.

She looked back over her should with an eyebrow raised. She could see right through him. "Are you really trying to tell me you didn't go and look for their record after you read mine?"

He looked away guiltily. "Maybe…" Okay, so he had, because he'd been damn curious, and Lucy's own records hadn't actually said whether she'd had a girl or a boy. So, he'd gone and searched for her child's records, and much to his delight, he'd found it in the general section. "But are you sure you even want to know? I mean… I don't want to tell you if it's going to upset you…"

"I'll be fine. I'm a big girl. I'm—wait, how old am I anyway?"

"As a guardian angel? Or you know, like… Your _physical_ age…"

"As a guardian angel."

"Oh. Five hundred and twenty six," Bickslow grinned.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Sheesh, I knew I'd been around for a while, but _five centuries_?" she mumbled. She'd thought it closer to maybe four. Time really flies when you're technically dead… "Anyway. Come on, tell me. Girl or boy?"

It was Bickslow's turn to roll his eyes, and he did so when Lucy shifted so she was sitting sideways in his lap and leaning against his arm and one of the wooden armrests. "It was a girl. Her name was Arden, and she lived to the ripe old age of fifty-seven after living a wonderful life." Although in Lucy's time, fifty-seven was pretty close to a miracle. "And no, she did not become a reaper or an angel like you, either. She was in the general archives."

She smiled softly to herself, letting her head fall to rest on his shoulder and then gazing back out to the city view. "That's good," she whispered. Naturally, Lucy had no memory of it at all. And she would admit, that she felt a strange yearning for something that she'd never really had the chance to know, but that was okay. She was happy the way she was, as _who_ she was. Hearing how she'd died hadn't really upset her at all.

Bickslow was only relieved to know that it hadn't upset her, too. Had he done so, then he would've known. He wasn't the least bit concerned about Lucy's happiness right then.

And so, for a little while, all they did was sit quietly, with Lucy still sitting against his chest and with Bickslow having zero intentions of letting go – he cherished any kind of contact he had with her those days. But after a while of just watching the never-sleeping city before them, and listening to the faint hum of the traffic far below, Bickslow couldn't help the smirk that tugged at the corner of his mouth as he eventually said, "You know, you're pretty damn sexy for someone in their five-hundreds."

And for that, he got an elbow in his stomach. "Remember when I used to hate you?" she mumbled menacingly.

"Aw, baby, come on. You never hated me to begin with."

Maybe, for once, the reaper was right.

* * *

 _ **A/N:** Is it hundreds or hundredths? Honestly, I couldn't figure it out. (Edit: I did actually know it was 'hundreds'. It's just been a long time since I've actually done actual math-math, and referring to an age in the hundreds just sounded strange to me, naturally. But thank you for those who did clarify it for me.) _


	4. For All Eternity

Bet you thought I'd forgotten about this AU, huh? Well, honestly, I kinda had. But truth be told, I've also had the other two chapters for this AU planned/sitting in my WIP folder for over a year. I just didn't want to work on them until I'd gotten this one done, since they're both part of the 'alternate timeline' in this AU, if that makes sense. Probably not. I mentioned this in one of the other chapters before.

Anyway. I've been working on some older AUs lately, like the dolphin trainer au and the knight/princess AU, and I figured this one really needed an update too, so here we are. This is kind of the last "canon" chapter for this AU, at least as of right now. I don't really know where else I can take this. I'm totally open to ideas and suggestions.

Also, no, this isn't anywhere close to being edited/proofed. I planned on having this finished a week ago, but I've literally been playing The Witcher 3 for the last week and I had to tear myself away from it tonight so I could get this damn chapter up. I really wanted something posted before uni goes back in a couple more weeks, and HIMY and the step-parent AU aren't close to being ready, so... Yeah. I'll fix the errors in another week or two. For now, enjoy! Reviews are always greatly appreciated.

* * *

 **For All Eternity**

* * *

When their fourth human had died, Lucy had just smiled at her reaper and said she'd see him soon before she'd returned to her designated space to rest and unwind for a little bit. Bickslow had only stuck his tongue out and said he'd see her never, just like he had for the last three humans, and then he'd jumped down from the skyscraper just to show off that he was better when it came to teleportation.

When their fourth human had died, Lucy had just never thought that the day where she never got paired with Bickslow again would come. For nearly four centuries, she'd spent almost every minute of every day by her lil' baby reaper's side, and for nearly four centuries, Lucy had never been able to imagine spending so much time with anyone else in the universe.

But when the next human was assigned, and Lucy was sent to the expectant mother's suite, there was no Bickslow in sight. At first, Lucy just thought that he was late, although she wasn't quite sure how he could be since the _only_ time he'd arrived after her had been the day he'd been reborn as a reaper. But still, at first, Lucy didn't think much of it. She only tucked herself into the corner and waited for her next human to finally be born, and her favourite reaper to finally arrive.

But her reaper never arrived, or at least her favourite one never did. The hours turned to days, and even when her human was a week old, there was still no reaper in sight. Lucy just didn't know what she was supposed to do. She wondered if there had perhaps been an error, and if it was one of those rare cases where a human _only_ had a guardian angel assigned to him; it had never happened to her before, but she'd heard stories of it. She wondered if at that very moment, Bickslow was just sitting in his own designated space and biding his time, waiting for an assignment to given.

Lucy considered going to see the elders at one point, to perhaps ask where her reaper was or what was going on with her newest assignment, but she knew it would be a waste of time. The councils never bothered with such trivial matters, only ever caring about the reapers and angels stupid enough to abuse their powers or break the rules that governed them.

It was when her human was a month old that Lucy seemed to meet her reaper, though, right as she followed the new family into the small doctor's office.

"Oh, shit. You must be the angel!"

Lucy scanned the room quickly, seeing the woman with long brunette hair draped comfortably over the examination bed on the far side. She sat up once she saw Lucy, a lopsided grin on her face as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"I'm your new partner!"

Lucy stared at the woman in the bikini top and capris. She'd thought Bickslow's sense of fashion was weird, but this was something else. "You're… You're the reaper?"

The woman nodded, taking a swig from the large bottle she had in one hand. "Sure am!" She thrust her free hand out in Lucy's direction. "Cana, by the way."

"Uh… Lucy," she murmured, hesitantly shaking her hand.

Lucy almost couldn't believe it was happening. She really wasn't going to be paired with Bickslow that time. She'd gotten so used to it that she really had just expected to spend yet another seven or eight decades with him. But apparently even in death, the universe was cruel. She just didn't really know what to do, because she just really hadn't seen that coming.

Still, as unexpected and worrying as Lucy found it all, because she didn't even know if she'd _ever_ see Bickslow again, Lucy couldn't help but wonder where the hell her new reaper had been for the last month. She should've met Cana weeks earlier. And, granted, Lucy did kind of wish that she hadn't met Cana, just because she wasn't the lil' baby reaper she'd been mentoring and had teasing her for the last four centuries, but that wasn't the point. She already knew her human that time around wasn't supposed to die for another nine-two years (and to think the average life expectancy had once been _thirty_ ), so if she was stuck with Cana, Lucy was sure as hell going to get to know her. Or, well, she'd try to.

"You, uh… You know the human is a month old already, right?" Lucy pointed out cautiously, watching the woman take another drink. She was fairly certain Cana was actually drunk, and the last Lucy had checked, reapers couldn't even _get_ drunk.

"Oh, yeah, I know," Cana chuckled. "Sorry 'bout that. Was down the coast with some buddies. You angels throw quite the parties."

"…Huh?" Lucy shook her head. "Actually, never mind. Just tell me if you're actually going to do your job and be around or not." Because that's what reapers were supposed to do. They were supposed to watch their humans just as much as the angels did, but of course, very few did. Apparently they had better things to do with their time, or at least that was what Lucy had to assume. She didn't really get it.

Cana scratched the back of her head. "I mean, there's not really much point for me to be here, y'know?"

"Excuse me?"

"He's still got another, what, ninety-something years to go? I don't really get off on making kids' lives hell."

Lucy gawked at the reaper. "But… But that's what you're _supposed_ to do!" Reapers were _made_ to cause mayhem. The sooner they collected a soul, the better. She'd heard a few reapers say that the souls of children were far nicer than those of adults. It had always creeped Lucy out a little, especially when she'd heard some of them say how _sweet_ infant souls were, but they were still reapers and that was just what they were like. Lucy had long since stopped questioning the laws of their universe. Still, it was odd that Cana didn't want to do her duty. "You're supposed to make their lives hell!"

Cana shrugged and picked herself up from the examination table. "Yeah, well, guess I'm just a shitty reaper then, eh?" It wasn't the first time she'd had an angel tell her she was doing her job wrong. It had just been a while since it had happened. "I'm making your job easier, anyway. You have less to worry about if I'm not here trying to make everything go wrong for the human," she said.

"That's not the point!" Lucy shrieked.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll check in every year or so to make his life miserable for a few days."

"W-Well, yes, that would make me feel better."

"Great. In that case, I'll see you in a year, angel-face." Cana saluted her and took another swig from her bottle. "In the mean time, I have somewhere else to be." Lots of places to be, really, but in any case, it wasn't a doctor's office with an angry angel and a crying infant.

Lucy huffed and crossed her arms as the reaper took her leave. She should probably enjoy having a reaper that insisted on not being there, but she just didn't. Lucy had always prided herself on following the rules, and she was sure she would've been a law-abiding citizen before she'd died. But after six centuries (at least according to Bickslow since he'd read her file in the archive), Lucy still had a hard time understanding how people could have so little regard for rules and guidelines. Most of the time, they were there for a reason. Even if they weren't there for a reason, what was the point of ignoring them?

She just didn't know.

What she did know, was that she would almost do anything to get her lil' baby reaper back. As godforsakenly annoying as he was, he was far better than Cana. But maybe she was biased.

* * *

"Who the fuck are you?"

The angel smiled sweetly at him, extending her hand to him as her fluffy white wings spread proudly on her back. She was quite possibly the only angel Bickslow had had the misfortune of meeting that _didn't_ hide her wings. Lucy had always said they were mostly useless, but that hadn't stopped him from always requesting to be wrapped up in them. They were so fluffy and warm. Still, the angel in front of him was clearly no Lucy, and he wanted nothing to do with that angel's wings. Nope.

"Howdy there! I'm Mira!" she said, her teeth just as bright as her hair, her wings, and her damn clothes, too. "I'm your new buddy!"

Bickslow shook his head and turned back around. "Nope. I'm out. Fuck this." He hadn't signed up for that shit. Where the fuck was Lucy?

"Naw, come on now," Mira crooned, following him out of the room. "What's the matter with you? Are you havin' a bad day, hun?"

"Yes, I'm having a bad day!" Bickslow shouted over his shoulder, barely stopping in his attempt to get over her. It was a good thing humans couldn't actually see their kind, otherwise he would've walked into at least a dozen bystanders outside the small clinic, and the angel's wings would've knocked at least _two_ dozen to the ground, and he _knew_ how that felt - Lucy had hit him with them a few times. "And don't call me hun!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like a cookie? Will that make you feel better?"

"No, I don't want a damn cookie! And stop following me! I don't like you!" The sooner he got away from the annoying guardian angel, the better, so with the next step, he was stepping onto one of the large, metal beams that made up one of the last remaining landmarks from his time, and looked out over the bustling city.

It had grown so much since he'd been alive, and since the last time he'd been there when his first human as a new reaper had died. It almost wasn't recognisable anymore with almost every city looking the same those days with the same tall skyscrapers with the solar panels and gardens every few floors, all connected by their own chaotic network of roads way up in the sky. But it didn't need to look the same as it had when he'd still been a human. It was still his safe haven, his spot above the world, and it had been his favourite place with Lucy. And with Lucy nowhere to be found, his safe haven was the only place he wanted to be.

He didn't really know what to do without the damn angel. She'd taught him everything he knows and helped him realise that dying really wasn't such a bad thing. She'd made his afterlife pretty damn fun, and for the most part, actually worth living - because he could always just request to be seen by the elders and ask to be reborn or just sent on to the next world like all of the souls he collected got to do, but he just hadn't wanted to do that. Why would he choose to die when he could spend an eternity next to a literal angel?

Well, that was what he'd _thought_ would happen anyway. Lucy had said that they were really lucky to keep getting paired together, but Bickslow had always just joked that it was a sign they were destined to be together for all eternity. He'd believed it after a while, too, but maybe that had just been foolish. Maybe it really had been nothing but stupid luck.

Right then though, Bickslow felt like the unluckiest person in the universe.

* * *

"You want a cookie?"

Bickslow nodded, silently accepting the chocolate chip biscuit from the woman and taking a small bite. After three years with the white-haired angel, Bickslow had grown rather fond of the cookies. They didn't really make him feel any better, but they tasted good.

"Do you want to maybe mess with the human a little bit too?" she asked, placing a hand on his shoulder and furling her wings behind her. "I'll even turn a blind eye, as long as you don't properly try and take his soul, because that just won't do." No humans ever died early on her watch. Never. And for her to condone the amusing torture that Bickslow's kind was so fond of… Well, it was a big thing. But she knew her new reaper friend was hurting, and consider she was stuck with him for the next nearly ninety years, Mira figured she'd at least try and cheer him up a little.

"No, it's fine. I'm not really feeling it today," he mumbled. It was hard to be interested in making a three year old throw another completely unnecessary tantrum when all he could think about was how Lucy would be telling him off for being mean if she were with him right then.

He could almost hear her voice if he focused long enough. _"Bickslow, that wasn't very nice!"_ She'd scowl at him, too, and she'd roll her eyes and try not to smile when he pointed out that he was just having a bit of fun, but she always smiled anyway, because she couldn't help it. He could almost see her smile still, every time he closed his eyes.

And on the days like that, where he didn't at all feel like making his human's life problematic for a few minutes or hours, he remembered the quiet days with Lucy, the ones that always fell on their last human's wedding anniversary and where they'd just go somewhere else for the day and do nothing but talk and enjoy each other's company. And each time, he'd just tell her how much he wished he'd known her when he'd still been alive, because being able to have _some_ kind of life with her would've been so damn great. They couldn't do anything or _be_ anything in their world. All he'd been able to do was _tell_ her he loved her, and nothing else.

It had taken him two centuries to realise he missed being alive, because it had taken him two centuries to fall in love with the guardian angel. And another two centuries later, all Bickslow could still think about was how much he would've loved to have a proper life where he got to get married, have kids, and grow old with someone like Lucy, just like all of the souls he'd collected had done. But he'd died far too young and far too early, and now there he was, finally realising just how painfully lonely immortality could be.

"You're missing your old angel friend again, aren't you?" Mira said softly then, and Bickslow gave another silent nod. He'd eventually told her about his previous partner a few months after their current human had been born. For the most part, Mira still didn't understand _why_ Bickslow was so miserable, but then again, she'd also never been paired with the same reaper more than once. As far as she'd always known, that just didn't happen. Mira was sure that if she'd spent nearly four centuries with one reaper, she'd be a little upset at first too, but she wouldn't be crying over it three years later. It was pointless making friends as their kind, because you would probably never see that person again once you went your separate ways. Bickslow just hadn't learnt that yet, it seemed. "Oh, bless your heart," she sighed, wrapping her wing around him. "It really was bound to happen at some point."

"I guess…"

"It's probably time you just forget about it. Sulking won't do you any good." _And it won't do_ ** _me_** _any good either._ Well, technically, Bickslow sulking made her job easier, but it was getting kind of annoying. She was usually a kind person, but she was definitely not going to be putting up with a miserable reaper for the next ninety years. No sir.

 _Forget about it?_ Like _that_ would ever happen. Bickslow would quite literally rather die than forget about it, and being reborn as a human again or being sent to the next world was sounding ridiculously appealing right about then. But… He couldn't do that. He had to believe he'd see Lucy again at _some_ point, and it wasn't like he'd be going anywhere anytime soon. Eternity was a long time, after all.

"I'm just… gonna go," Bickslow announced after a moment. He'd grown to tolerate Mira, but sometimes he _really_ hated her. Or, really, he hated just behind around her, but then again, he hated being around anyone that wasn't Lucy. Even with the other reapers at the archives that he'd come to know over the last few years, Bickslow never quite felt comfortable. Something always felt like it was missing and that something was wrong. The only time that feeling went away was when he went and reread Lucy's record, or when he read her daughter Arden's record, or even the records of the family _he'd_ left behind when he'd died. His little sister's was still hard to read, though, even after all that time.

Still, it wasn't like he needed to be watching over his human right then. With Lucy, he hadn't really minded just sitting and watching and doing nothing. But with Mira, while he wasn't torturing the poor kid and making his life (and his mother's life) miserable, he had no reason to be there. He knew he had no hope in hell of collecting the kid's soul early, so he wasn't even going to try.

For the time being, there was a comfy chair at the archives calling his name.

* * *

Leaving the archives behind once again, Lucy returned to her human at the park where he was happily pushing his six-year-old son on the swings. There were so few parks like that around those days, so Lucy couldn't help but love the times her human visited them. Parks always made her think of when Bickslow had still been a new reaper and their first human together had always visited the park to play on the swings.

Every now and then she'd been visiting the archives just in the hopes of maybe catching Bickslow there. At first, she'd been going every few nights, since she'd known that he'd always gone when his human had been sleeping. After a while, she'd gone maybe once every couple of weeks. And now, she went once every few months if she was lucky. But after forty-seven years, Lucy was beginning to wonder why she still bothered. She had no hope in hell of ever meeting Bickslow again, and she knew that far too well. She'd just let herself get attached when deep down, she'd always known she shouldn't have.

She'd been walking that earth for more than half a century. She should've known better than to let herself catch _feelings_ for the stupid reaper. If she hadn't, then she probably would've been fine and she wouldn't have cared half as much about being separated. Four centuries was still a long time to spend with just one person, but it would've been so much easier to forget about it all if she'd just seen Bickslow as an annoying reaper and nothing else.

"Have you given up on your old reaper yet?" Cana asked, sitting herself down on the tree branch next to Lucy.

 _So it's that time again._ Lucy had to give Cana for sticking to her word. She'd been showing up every now and then for the last forty-seven years, just to mess with the human a little. "Almost," Lucy mumbled. There really was no point of trying to run into him again in the archives because she knew it just wasn't going to happen, but she just wasn't ready to completely give up just yet, as much as she wished she could. "Anyway, I take it you're here to begin making his life miserable again?"

"Why else would I be here?"

In hindsight, it had been a stupid question. That was the _only_ reason Cana ever appeared. Lucy never really minded much when Cana came to torture the human, just because she knew it was always going to happen. Sometimes, Lucy even wished that Cana would just take his soul and be done with it; Lucy had already said she wouldn't intervene, which was a first in all the centuries she'd been an angel, but Cana had refused and said she wasn't interested in cutting his life short.

Still, while she didn't care about the mindless suffering Cana inflicted, Lucy just really couldn't deal with it on that particular day. Her human was having a good day, and all Lucy wanted to do was watch him be happy and enjoy living, even if she'd seen it countless times before. It was really the only form of joy she had those days, although it really might've been a bit of a stretch to say that her human made her happy. Nothing really did those days. But, Lucy didn't think it would be fair to ask Cana to wait just another day or two, not when she was technically already doing her a favour by only making an appearance once or twice a year.

But they were friends, or at least something resembling it; Lucy wasn't really sure if she'd ever had a proper _friend_ in all her time as an angel. Well, apart from Bickslow, at least. Still, Lucy really didn't mind Cana, and for a reaper, she was more than tolerable to be around. Lucy was almost inclined to think that the woman ending up as a reaper had been a mistake. But it was because Lucy liked to think that she and Cana were close (well, as close as an angel and a reaper _should_ get) that she was comfortable enough to ask Cana that she just give her one more day.

"Is there any chance you could just… wait?" Lucy asked quietly. "I mean, just… Just for another day. I kind of just want him to enjoy today, if that's okay…"

Cana shrugged. "Sure thing."

"Is… Is that it? You're not going to argue with me?"

"Nah. Why would I do that?" Cana said. "I mean, I wouldn't be doing any of it at all if you hadn't made a big fuss about it when the human was still a tiny thing. Suits me fine not messin' with him today." She really never enjoyed it, but in all her years, Lucy still wasn't the first angel she'd had to make that kind of deal with. It just really had been a long time since the last one. If Lucy wanted the human to have a good day instead of his usual prescribed bad-luck-bonanza, then that was fine.

Lucy looked back down, giving a solemn nod. It was hard to forget that she really could've just had an easy ninety-something years if she'd just let Cana do what she wanted. Sometimes she felt bad for it, but Cana was the first reaper Lucy had met that didn't actually enjoy her job, and Lucy just hadn't known how to deal with that at the time. Still, she was there to protect and watch over her humans, and she liked doing that. There wasn't really any point of being an angel when she was paired with a reaper who didn't give a fuck.

Cana sighed after a moment, swirling the last of her drink around in the bottle before she downed it quickly and discarded the rubbish. She'd admit that it was kind of nice to just watch the human have a bit of fun, but she couldn't sit there all day and watch it like Lucy did. She didn't really have a reason to be there if she wasn't torturing the guy. "Well, since I don't need to be here, I guess I'll—"

"Wait." Lucy grabbed Cana's wrist, pulling her hand back away a second later. "Would you… Would you mind staying for a little while?" she asked quietly, glancing back to the reaper quickly. "I… I wouldn't mind the company." That was probably what she missed most about Bickslow. She'd gotten so used to having a reaper next to her all the time that the last nearly five decades had been almost painfully lonely. Lucy knew she needed to just push past it since it would no doubt be the same with the next reaper - they'd be there just to make her job difficult and disappear when it suited them, just like every other _normal_ reaper did.

Right then though, Lucy didn't want to do that. She just wanted to sit and watch, and know that she wasn't quite alone, even if it would just be for a little while.

Cana gave a small nod, almost a smile on her lips as she looked back to the human in the park. Perhaps staying for a little while wouldn't be such a bad thing.

* * *

After a long ninety-three years, Bickslow had finally been allowed to collect his human's soul. Strangely, it hadn't been old age to finally bring the damn human down. It had been a little dose of the flu. Still, the moment he'd finally collected the soul and sent it on its proper path, all Bickslow had wanted to do was get himself as far away from the white-haired angel as he possibly could. It had been a ridiculously long ninety-three years, and Bickslow was just glad it was finally over.

He never knew how long it would be before he was reassigned, but that didn't stop him from heading to the archives again. That time, he stopped on his way to the angel section just to greet the familiar reapers in the hall. He'd only learnt the names of a few reapers in the nearly five centuries he'd been a reaper. He'd learnt quickly that it was hard to meet other reapers or angels while assigned, not unless he made a conscious effort to visit the few common grounds in their world, but he'd never really found the need to when he'd still been paired with Lucy.

When he was finished at the archives, Bickslow returned to his designated space to wait out his reassignment. He'd always liked the short naps in his off-time, mostly because they filled in the time and made him feel somewhat human again, but they'd still never really been necessary. It was like eating, though. He didn't need to do it, but he enjoyed it sometimes anyway, just because he could. Still, that day, as he collapsed down onto the perfectly made bed in his tiny, square space, Bickslow felt tired. He felt genuinely drained, as if as soon as he closed his eyes, he'd sleep without trouble for the next three days, and that just wasn't supposed to happen.

He hadn't so much as yawned in the last five centuries, but right then, Bickslow could barely keep his eyes open. Apparently being stuck with the poster child for guardian angels for nine decades had been more exhausting than he thought.

But if it was like that then, what was it going to be like after he collected his next human's soul? Was he always going to feel so depleted after he was paired with someone that _wasn't_ Lucy? If that was the case, Bickslow really wasn't sure he wanted to deal with that. He was already beginning to see how pointless it was continuing to hope that he'd run into Lucy somewhere again. The chance of them both being in the same place at the exact same time was near impossible, and Bickslow really didn't want to accept that, even if he knew that it was the truth.

But it was as if just _thinking_ about Lucy and whether or not he'd always feel so tired as soon as he was done with the human just exhausted him even more. And… Bickslow didn't really want to think anymore, not while it was so exhausting. He just wanted to sleep, perhaps for the next day or two, and just shut his brain off completely. For once, he didn't want to think about Lucy, or about what the next few centuries of his life would be like. He just didn't want to think about anything.

He didn't bother changing out of the clothes he usually wore. He merely made himself comfortable and willed sleep to take him. But the moment he did, he felt that annoying tug on his very being, and he couldn't help but groan into the soft pillow as he was summoned for his next human's birth.

* * *

Lucy had always preferred it when the humans were welcomed into the world in their family homes or surrounded by close relatives, rather than the cold hospital rooms that had barely changed in the last few centuries. Those days though, it was rare for a child to be born away from the skilled doctors and nurses. When it did happen though, Lucy couldn't help but enjoy it. It was the one thing that reminded her of the world _she'd_ been born into, one that was long forgotten by the rest of the world and had just become part of the world's long history.

Strangely, Lucy hadn't liked having to part ways with Cana as her last human had finally passed, but it hadn't been able to be avoided, and Lucy knew that. Once more though, Lucy couldn't help but dread meeting her next reaper, and it had been centuries since she'd last been scared of that moment. The last time she'd dreaded meeting her new partner had been when Bickslow was still around, when she'd naturally thought that she'd never see him again once their first human had finally passed. Still, while part of her still missed the moronic reaper, Lucy well and truly knew that she never should've been paired with him more than once in the first place, and she'd finally accepted that she'd probably never run into him again, and… Well, that was fine. It had to be fine.

Still, with the impending arrival of the next human - a girl, finally, which relieved Lucy to no end since she almost always got stuck protecting stupid _boys_ \- she couldn't help but dread meeting her reaper. They were still annoying, and most of them were nothing but cruel. Lucy didn't think there'd ever be a day where she didn't loathe their entire race. Well, most of them, at least. She'd probably been lucky with Bickslow and Cana, and after five centuries of good luck, Lucy was certain she was bound to be paired with the most horrible reaper that existed. Because that was just the way the universe worked.

With the small living room in the human's house becoming just a little crowded (not that anyone actually saw her, but still), Lucy merely sighed and went to explore the rest of the cosy home, perhaps see where it was the human would spend the next few months of her life. She knew right away that the human would have a life full of joy and love once she saw the decorated nursery, everything in the same pretty shades of yellow or pink, and with her given name painted in glittering silver above the bassinet. It was one of the nicer rooms Lucy had seen over the years, that was for sure, and somehow, the homes the humans grew up in always managed to say a lot about their future.

She ventured into the kitchen to see what ridiculous dishes the human's grandparents had laid out; why a buffet was necessary at a birth, Lucy really had no idea, but it surprisingly wasn't the first time she'd seen it. Lucy didn't really think much of it when she saw the tall man with blue hair sitting on the counter and stuffing his face with a brownie slice, only assuming it was one of the guests who was more interested in the food than the baby (which, honestly, Lucy didn't blame him for). But that was before she walked past him to look at the dishes laid on the table, and she glanced back out of curiosity, and saw the one face that she really hadn't been expecting to see.

And, judging by Bickslow's wide eyes staring back at her as he paused licking the chocolate icing off his fingers, he hadn't been expecting to see her either. And, he really hadn't been. Not even a little bit.

"Human?" Lucy managed to ask, finding her voice again somehow after she bumped into a chair. She was positively certain Bickslow wouldn't have been there if he wasn't the human's reaper, but still, she had to ask. There was a _tiny_ chance she was hallucinating or something.

Bickslow only nodded, too dumbstruck to actually say anything. But he was more than ready to catch Lucy and wrap his arms tightly around her when she squealed and jumped towards him, and in a second, the kitchen was left behind and they were surrounded by blooming flowers and ferns in a nearby garden.

He really hadn't thought that would happen, that they'd be paired up once more to spend close to another century together. Bickslow was almost inclined to think that it was a dream and he was really just asleep in his bed in his room and that he hadn't really been summoned for the human's birth, but he knew it wasn't a dream. Reapers didn't dream when they slept. But knowing that it was actually real and Lucy was in front of him just made him want to hold onto her forever, because part of him believed that it was just a mistake and that before long they'd be assigned to separate humans once more, and Bickslow really didn't know what he'd do if that was the case.

In his mind, the second he let go of her, she'd disappear again. So he just wasn't going to let go of her.

"Fuck, I didn't think I'd ever see you again." He unwound his arms from around her waist just so he could lean back and hold her face, almost just to see if it really was her and he wasn't completely mistaking her for someone else. But it was Lucy, because it really couldn't be anyone else. "I missed you so damn much. God, I can't believe it's really _you_. I didn't… I really didn't think this would happen."

"It's really good to see you, too," Lucy laughed gently.

He'd missed that sound more than he'd thought. It was the one thing he could never get sick of, even if it was the only thing he'd have to listen to for all eternity. "God, I wish I could kiss you right now. I really do."

Lucy shook her head. "You can't," she whispered.

"I know."

She almost wished that he could, or that he would, but she'd never see Bickslow again if he did, and one lousy _kiss_ was never going to be worth losing him over it. Lucy had always liked to follow the rules, and she was sure she'd been the same even when she'd been alive. As much as she hated the ones that governed her then, the ones that forbid her from doing anything other than _saying_ how much that stupid reaper meant to her, Lucy could never break them, no matter how tempting it was. She'd much rather have Bickslow at her side to constantly roll her eyes at, than to not have him at all. She knew that Bickslow felt the same, too.

But with her lil' baby reaper back in front of her again, Lucy knew that she'd just been stupid to let herself believe that she really would've been fine with not seeing him ever again. She didn't think she'd ever be able to move on from the damn reaper, not even if she tried.

She just had to hope that luck would be on her side again, and that maybe, just maybe, she'd be stuck with him for the rest of eternity. She couldn't really think of anything nicer.


End file.
